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French journalist Florence Beaugé brings her account of torture in Algeria to the Algiers book fair

8 November 2026 · Algeria Now

French journalist Florence Beaugé brings her account of torture in Algeria to the Algiers book fair — Photo : babelio.com (adresse collée)

The French journalist Florence Beaugé, a longtime correspondent for a leading Paris daily, signed copies of her book on the Algerian war at the Algiers International Book Fair, telling visitors that France is still uneasy about its past in Algeria.

Beaugé took part for the first time in the fair, known by its French acronym SILA, which ran from 29 October to 7 November. She presented an expanded edition of "Algérie, une guerre sans gloire", first published in 2005 and reissued this year by the Algerian publisher Barzakh with new revelations and behind-the-scenes details of her investigation. She called her participation an honour and said she was struck by the crowds, particularly young readers, which she saw as proof that books still draw people despite the rise of artificial intelligence.

Her reporting helped reopen a painful debate in France. In June 2000, her newspaper carried on its front page her account of Louisette Ighilahriz, a former independence fighter who described being tortured during the war. Beaugé went on to question General Jacques Massu, and she reported the denials of General Marcel Bigeard and the confessions of General Paul Aussaresses.

France is not proud of this past and struggles to face it, she said, pointing to earlier works such as Henri Alleg's "La Question". She argued that the analysis in her book still holds more than twenty years later, and that relations between the two countries remain marked by mutual misunderstanding.

Memory remains at the centre of Algerian public life. On 7 November, Environment Minister Krikou told a national colloquium on environmental memory that France has still not handed over maps of radioactive waste left at its nuclear test sites in the Sahara.

Books like Beaugé's keep that conversation alive on both shores of the Mediterranean.

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